Best Buy expected to lay off 2,000 midlevel managers across the US

Shoppers enter a Best Buy on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press)

Best Buy plans to lay off roughly 2,000 managers as the electronics retailer continues to cut costs, according to sources at the company's Minnesota headquarters.

Although no store closings are planned, the electronics retailer “has begun laying off thousands of midlevel managers nationwide as it girds for more competition,” the New York Post reported Wednesday.

An official for Best Buy declined comment. The company is scheduled to report earnings on Thursday.

Still, sources say the cuts appear to be aimed at field managers, rather than managers at any of Best Buy's roughly 1,000 U.S. big-box stores.

CEO Hubert Joly and his team have been focusing on making Best Buy's management structure leaner, aiming to produce hundreds of millions in cost savings.

Last month, after it reported surprisingly soft holiday sales, Joly promised to redouble those cost-cutting efforts and prune what he called its “bloated” operations.

“One of my middle names is Frugality,” Joly told analysts in January. “This is New Year's resolution (time), so everyone goes on a diet.”

Last winter, Best Buy cut 400 employees at its Richfield, Minn., corporate headquarters. The year before, it closed six big-box stores in Minnesota and laid off hundreds of workers.

This time around, the job losses within Minnesota don't appear to be quite as severe as in previous rounds. Joly also appears to be protective of the fleet of Best Buy stores.

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“We've also been very clear that closing stores is not a recipe or magic wand for us,” he said in January.

Since becoming CEO late in 2012, Joly and his team have searched for cost-savings from its management ranks and operations, in order to finance higher-priority initiatives, such as beefing up its online capabilities and making sure its prices are competitive with its rivals.

Wall Street has tended to cheer those efforts, and traders again reacted positively to the initial reports on Wednesday. Shares surged Wednesday when the New York Post's story first appeared, and were trading up 2.4 percent in late-afternoon trading.

The big-box giant has faced increased headwinds in recent years from a slew of retail competitors, including online rivals such as Amazon, manufacturers including Apple and discounters like Walmart and Target.

Best Buy has more than 145,000 employees, according to its corporate website, including about 8,000 in its home state of Minnesota. The company is expected to give more details when it announces earnings Thursday morning.